3/25/2017

PPAC's "42nd Street": Those Dancing Feats

The Cast of "42nd Street"(photo cortesy of 42nd Street National Tour)

We
all know the story of 42nd Street, now
being presented at PPAC as part of the show's National Tour. Anyone
who's seen the original black-and-white film version with Ruby Keeler
(and who hasn't?) will find much that is comfortably familiar,
especially the basic libretto. It's the story of the ingenue from
Allentown, Peggy Sawyer (Clara Cox), who goes on in place of the
injured leading lady, diva Dorothy Brock (Kara Gibson Slocum) who
breaks a leg (well, OK, so it's an ankle) and the director of the
Broadway-bound show Pretty Lady, Julian
Marsh (Matthew J. Taylor), who tells Peggy she's going out a
youngster but coming back a star, and all that. Also featured in the
large cast are characters such as the wisecracking old-timer Maggie
Jones (Gerrianne Genga), male ingenue Billy Lawlor (Connor Coughlin),
and second banana Annie (Kahlia Davis) as well as a huge ensemble of
dancing and singing actors (almost three dozen triple threats). But
you could write the plot yourself. No matter, it was never about the
threadbare tongue-in-cheek storyline. It remains all about the
dancing, most of it in the form of audience-pleasing tap.

The original Broadway production back in 1981 won the
Tony Award for Best Musical (and Choreography) and played for more
than eight years. The revival twenty years later also won a Tony for
Best Revival. It's one of those shows where you can enter the
theater humming the score, a pastiche of golden oldies like the title
song, plus such standards as “I Only Have Eyes for You”, “Lullaby
of Broadway”, and “We're in the Money”, all to the Music by
Harry Warren, Lyrics by Al Dubin and book by Michael Stewart and Mark
Bramble (who also serves as the Director of this production, and was
nominated in 2001 for a Tony for Best Direction of a Revival). The
songs constitute one of the first of what would come to be called
“jukebox musicals”, assembled from several films, some of them
shoehorned into the score without any real context. The creative
team boasts several established professionals, with fine Set Design
originally conceived by Beowulf Boritt, fabulous Costume Design by
Roger Kirk (seemingly hundreds of them) and expert Lighting Design by
Ken Billington.

All of the performers are fine, with wonderful precision
and synchronization, especially in the second act that makes no
pretense of any plot to speak of but presents one showstopper after
another . It's the kind of all-singing all-dancing ensemble show
that easily conforms to the huge venue that is PPAC. The only
disappointment was the number “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”, usually
performed in the sleeping car by all the chorines, but rather
anemically set in this version. Coincidentally, this critic got to
converse years ago with both Michael Stewart and Ruby Keeler on a
transatlantic crossing on the QE2, subsequently sitting right behind
Keeler at a performance of this show on Broadway. Both were
extremely gracious and eager to share memories of their respective
roles in the history of the film and play. They would surely feel
the same way towards this production.